Tips for Purchasing Vintage Ampeg SVT Gear

Esteban St. James of Von Saint Design sent us his third installment of a 4-part series on vintage Ampeg SVT gear.

Here, Esteban walks through the things to look for when purchasing the classic equipment, including the tubes, transformers, and tech work performed on it.

For info on understanding the vintage SVT sound and dating your gear, check out the first two videos.

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Leave a Reply to Nate Wahl Cancel reply

  1. chris

    This guy makes a great case for buying new stuff with new technology, never mind the weight considerations.

  2. Has the 4th video been posted? Thanks in advance!

  3. Well, thanks to this video series I now know I have a ’69-’71 head. Question is, do I want to schlep this heavy moster around to gigs?

    • Oh, but the TONE!!! The Ooomph! What tubes are you going with?

    • I think the original tubes are still in there. . The Ampeg is the same amp that I had in my basement rehearsal room in Ohio. I think the Sunn 200S that I normally use for gigs has it’s original tubes; a GZ34 rectifier and two KT-88’s. They are GE tubes. I’m guessing it’s nowhere near the original 250 watts but it still sounds great.

    • Cool! I figured they’d have worn out by now. That Eden tube amp you guys got me is still working like a champ, love the tone, I take it everywhere. Only 2/3 the weight, but it’s still a chunk.